Clemson Tigers quarterback Tajh Boyd (10) runs in for a touchdown during the first quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs at Clemson Memorial Stadium. / Jeremy Brevard, USA TODAY Sports

by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

CLEMSON, S.C. â?? Brent Venables slowly tugged off his headphones, unplugged them and wrapped the cord into a tight coil. As the celebration poured onto the field â?? a dance party erupting in Death Valley â?? Clemson's defensive coordinator appeared poured out, spent. But his slow journey off the field kept getting interrupted.

"You the man!" one kid in bright orange yelled at him, and then wrapped Venables in a sweaty embrace. Venables smiled, thanked him and shook his hand. But a moment later, to someone else, he said:

"Was that an abomination of a two-minute defense, or what?"

Don't try to convince Venables that Clemson's 38-35 victory over Georgia was a good defensive effort. Not after the Bulldogs piled up 545 yards. Aaron Murray threw for 323. Todd Gurley ran for 154. And worst of all, from a defensive coordinator's perspective: With Clemson up 10 in the final minutes, Georgia needed only 66 seconds to go 64 yards for a touchdown.

Abomination? Yeah, that last part probably was. It led to a few tense moments. The rest of it, though, was strangely anything but.

Everyone expected a shootout, and they got it. Points were supposed to come fast and furious, so no one was a bit surprised when Gurley broke loose for a 75-yard touchdown. Or when 12 seconds later, Sammy Watkins took a short catch 77 yards to answer. Or when Tajh Boyd accounted for five touchdowns. Or that the final score was the highest combined point total in the history of the series.

But who saw Clemson's defense taking control for a long stretch in the middle of the game, and making critical plays to change momentum? That was the real revelation Saturday night, the reason it's reasonable to consider much larger possibilities.

"That football team," said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney of Georgia, "is gonna win a lot of games. They are really, really good. Don't write them off â?? and don't crown us. Don't bring that trophy around."

No one will just yet. Still, the Tigers' victory â?? in the first meeting between the border rivals in 10 years â?? was a big deal. For the program. For the conference. And maybe, for the immediate future. The victory sets Clemson down a path toward an October showdown with Florida State that could have more than ACC title stakes. Afterward, Swinney transitioned from talk of how the Tigers needed to maintain perspective â?? "It was a huge win, but all we've done is win the opener," he said â?? into a rant that it's time for everyone to stop doubting his program.

"I don't get that," he said. "Y'all need to start writing something different. This program has been as consistent as any in college football the last 30-something weeks."

If it's time to stop doubting, defense might be a big reason. It was not dominant â?? a brief glance at the statistics and the score and the highlights shows that â?? but it did its part.

"We made a few plays," Venables said, and here's the thing: He wouldn't have been satisfied, probably, with a shutout. Not that those kinds of things are really possibilities most days, at least not this side of Alabama. The new paradigm is for defenses to be opportunistic: Make a few stops, take the ball away a couple of times â?? and hang on.

"I ain't buying that," said Venables, in his second season at Clemson after 13 years at Oklahoma, which means he's coached dominant defenses and, in latter years, been confounded by the Big 12's high-powered offenses. "We've got to get better, there's no doubt about it."

But a moment later, he essentially defined the new way in describing the Tigers' performance: "We played good enough at the right times," he said. "We disrupted the flow of their offense, built a little lead and were able to hold them at bay."

After getting stung early, first by Gurley's bolt for a touchdown, then by Murray's passing, the Tigers stiffened. For 20 minutes, from early in the second quarter to midway through the third, Clemson's defensive front outplayed the Bulldogs' offensive line, slowing down the running game, sacking Murray four times, and pressuring him into poor throws several other times. They intercepted him once, stopping a drive and reversing momentum, and forced a fumble, setting up a touchdown.

"We stood them up in the trenches when we needed to," Swinney said. "We got stops when we needed to."

Georgia contributed with plenty of mistakes, including penalties at the worst possible times. It's also hard to fathom, on an interception in the second quarter, how Murray didn't see 6-5, 270-pound defensive end Corey Crawford, who had dropped into coverage.

"I saw him looking over my way, and I thought, 'This might be it,' " Crawford said, "and I was able to put my hand on it."

And he added: "I think we just showed everybody we're not a soft team, not a finesse team."

The most important sequence came late in the third quarter, when trailing by three points, Georgia rolled to a first down at the 5 â?? and came away with nothing. Three runs managed 3 yards. A high snap foiled a field-goal attempt. Death Valley roared.

A little while later, after the Tigers grabbed the onside kick (after that abominable two-minute defense) and ran out the clock, it really got loud. Considering the challenge â?? Murray entered the season as a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, and Gurley might be the nation's best running back â?? the celebration was warranted.

"We have a chance to be pretty good," said Venables, meaning his defense â?? and by extension, the team.

It wasn't a shutout, not even close. But some days, slowing a shootout is a pretty good performance.

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George Schroeder, a national college football reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @GeorgeSchroeder.